Fine for blogger who claimed in video that Josephine Teo made offensive remarks against Malays
Manmeet Singh Bahadar Singh did so after he received a link from an unknown person to a WordPress blog with the alleged offensive content.
Singh, 57, then posted a commentary about the content without verifying its authenticity. He removed it once he realised that he had been "led on" by the unknown person, his lawyers S S Dhillon and Jasjeet Singh Harjindar Singh told the court.
Singh was fined S$6,000 (US$4,700) on Friday (Jun 6) after he pleaded guilty to one charge of knowingly committing an act which promoted disharmony between different racial groups.
Singh is a blogger who posts about socio-political issues on TikTok, among other social media platforms. He has been previously featured in the media as former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian's bodyguard.
HOW THE OFFENCE HAPPENED
Before he posted the offending content on TikTok on Aug 12, 2024, he received a link to a WordPress blog post via WhatsApp from an unknown person.
The blog post alleged that Mrs Teo, when asked about racial progress during an interview with Chinese media on Singapore's 59-year development, had made an offensive remark against Malays.
Singh felt angry and offended.
On the morning of Aug 12, 2024, he posted a video on his TikTok account with a visible representation bearing the words "Minister Josephine Teo blurted 'Malays are i*****' in a Chinese interview".
He then repeated the blog post's allegations. Singh did not verify the authenticity of the claims on the blog post before making his video.
In the video, Singh repeats the allegations and tells viewers to "go look it up".
He then adds, "I have been voicing out for, you know, against racial discrimination in Singapore. And look what happened now? My prediction's right!"
He finishes the video with the phrase "bring them down", according to court documents.
At the time of the offences, Singh's TikTok account had around 9,054 followers. The video was available long enough for Mrs Teo's colleagues and a reporter to ask the minister about it.
Around four hours after the video was published, Mrs Teo told her press secretary about it. The press secretary then downloaded a copy of the video and lodged a police report.
Later that day, Singh suspected the allegations were false and removed the TikTok video by 1.40pm.
He then posted another video in which he apologised to Mrs Teo, noting that his previous allegation was probably false. By 3pm, however, TikTok removed this video.
Subsequently, Mrs Teo posted on social media platforms to state that the allegations were false.
The blog post that sparked the offences was not available as of 6.30pm on Aug 12, 2024.
Singh was arrested on Feb 4, 2025 and released on bail the next day.
In mitigation, Mr Dhillon told the court the circumstances under which his client had been "led on" by the unknown person who sent him the blog post.
Singh was on his way to work as a warehouse assistant when this person texted him and included the link to the offensive blog post. This person then encouraged Singh to do "what you need to do", said Mr Dhillon.
"At the time, Manmeet had just alighted from his bus and was walking to his then-workplace, which was about a 10-minute walk from the bus stop.
"Manmeet felt angry and offended and elected to take a snapshot of the blog post on his phone and proceeded to record a video of himself commenting on the alleged statement on his phone whilst walking," Mr Dhillon and Mr Singh said.
Singh then went about his work. As he was working, he started having second thoughts about his post, as he had a growing suspicion that its contents were fake.
However, as Singh's work involved sensitive information, he did not have access to his phone until lunch.
"To his surprise and shock, he realised that the unknown person who had sent him the WhatsApp message that morning had deleted his account as well as the said message," the defence lawyers said.
"This confirmed Manmeet's suspicions that he had been falsely led on."
Singh immediately removed his video and published an apology video on his TikTok account. Unbeknownst to him, TikTok removed this video by 3pm.
He subsequently posted a second video to apologise.
The defence lawyers said that Singh was "racked with guilt" over his actions.
"Manmeet is not in the business of making his videos for profit or clout. His content is akin to an extension of himself and his views, which he shares because he feels responsible to raise awareness," said the lawyers.
Singh has since "deliberately steered clear of associating with other politicians to avoid controversy", the lawyers said. He also actively vets his news sources.
The defence asked for a S$2,000 fine for Singh.
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As a parent of one now, Ms Goh the entrepreneur admitted that it is a delicate balance that she and her husband try to strike between providing the best for their daughter and avoiding pampering her. For instance, they will not always accede when their daughter asks to buy something, because "she needs to know she cannot have everything", Ms Goh said. She and her husband also try to impart a sense of independence and responsibility in their daughter by getting her to pack up her toys after she is done with playtime, even though they have a domestic worker at home. Indeed, experts debunked the concept of "little emperor syndrome", a popular term describing such children in China who were stereotyped as overindulged and socially inept. China had introduced a one-child policy that ended in 2015. Assistant Professor Cheung Hoi Shan from the National Institute of Education (NIE), whose research interests include parenting, psychology and child development, said that the phenomenon is not well-researched in Singapore, if at all. Furthermore, a society where having only one child is state-mandated versus one where the decision is made by the parents is not "very comparable" to each other. "The way we (parents) see children also becomes very different," she added. Associate Professor Atiqah Azhari from SUSS' psychology programme said that the "little emperor" description itself has "limited empirical support" to begin with. 'Research shows that only-children in Asian societies, including China, are not more selfish. They sometimes demonstrate higher pro-social behaviour, especially when raised in warm, structured environments,' she said. 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'And we address their older children as jie jie or gor gor (older brother or sister in Chinese), so we use the same sibling terms that we would have used with our own family,' she said. "While we might not be related by blood, we are definitely bonded as an extended family. And I think that helps address the only-child syndrome." Growing up without siblings, a child receiving undivided attention and greater resources from one's parents may not always turn out to be socially inept. Assoc Prof Atiqah pointed to a study in 2022, which found that children without siblings outperformed their peers in linguistic performance and emotional management, "suggesting a clear developmental benefit when parents can focus their resources and time on one child". "In resource-rich urban environments like Singapore, this dynamic can be further amplified, given parents' heavy involvement in education and enrichment activities," she added. 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Even more than a decade later, he still walks on proverbial eggshells sometimes to avoid worrying her. "The most dangerous stunt that I did recently – it involved the car overturning multiple times … I did not tell my mum about it. I did it first and after it was done, I told her," he said. Many of these only-children told CNA TODAY that they also feel an added pressure not to disappoint their parents who have invested so much in them, even if their parents have never outrightly expressed such expectations. Ms Aw, though, said that her parents did express their expectations of her, which she then internalised. "There was always some form of expectation. When you were young, it was academic. When you were old enough, it was about work and employment. And when you were older, it was about family-oriented expectations," she said. Given that they had done so much for her, she grew up feeling the need to do well so her parents could be proud of her and be able "to brag to everybody else, like at weddings or parties or important events like Chinese New Year", she added. As a result of this, she believes only-children feel more intense guilt and become critical of themselves when they do not meet their parents' expectations. Asst Prof Cheung from NIE said that regardless of how many children there are in a family, parents and family members must manage their own expectations of their children and learn to step back. "So for families who cannot do that, then the child might still get anxiety and depression no matter how many children (the parents) have," she added. Similarly, many of the differences in children's developmental outcomes are influenced by their childhood environment and parenting practices, and not directly caused by the presence of siblings or otherwise. For instance, a child can still fail to learn the importance of sharing even if he or she has siblings at home, where the parents overindulge them and fail to instil empathy, Asst Prof Cheung said. "So it's very hard to just say, 'Oh, because I have only one child, or I have many children, therefore the child is set on a particular trajectory'. No, it depends a lot on the other contextual factors." INEVITABLE CAREGIVING PRESSURE While the growth and development of only-children is a pressing issue, what may be of bigger concern is what lies ahead for them in their adult years in terms of caregiving responsibilities, Asst Prof Cheung said. This certainly weighs heavily on the minds of those who spoke to CNA TODAY. Mr Tan the stuntman lives alone with his 73-year-old mother and 93-year-old wheelchair-bound grandmother. He counts his blessings that his mother is still mobile and active and that his grandmother does not have major ailments besides being unable to walk. Previously, though, he took care of his sick grandfather for about two years before the latter passed away, a task that he described as "very emotionally, physically taxing". Thinking about his mother growing older and frail in the future is enough to worry him. "I cannot take too long a trip. Even though I can, since she is relatively healthy, I will feel uneasy, in case anything happens," he added. In the case of Mr Yazid the senior consultant, he is thankful his job allows him to work from home most of the time, which allows him to be with his mother, 68, a divorcee who would live alone otherwise. However, there were professional opportunities that would have helped him advance in his career that he had to forgo. This was due to his caregiving responsibilities that he had taken on years before his parents separated. 'So, for example, there were relocation opportunities to regional cities like Bangkok, Jakarta … I had to decline or I couldn't even consider applying for those, because if I had taken them up, then who was going to take care of my parents?" Economist Walter Theseira said that in the bigger scheme of things, "it is quite impossible" for most adults who are only-children to take on caregiving roles for two elderly parents unless they have financial support. The support needed is not limited to just finance, but also in overall caregiving capacity such as time and physical ability. 'I think the reality is that many single children will need state or purchased support such as foreign helpers or nursing homes,' Associate Professor Theseira from SUSS said. Dr Kelvin Seah, an economist from the National University of Singapore, said a sustained trend of single-child families, similar to that of childlessness, will have long-term implications for Singapore's labour supply and economic growth. One potential policy tool is to provide financial support for families who aspire to have larger families but are financially challenged, he said, though he added that financial incentives have been shown to have a limited impact. Both economists proposed that there be more family-friendly employment practices, for example, to help parents better juggle their careers with caregiving responsibilities – whether for their children or parents. Dr Tan from IPS said: "The increased pressure on our informal caregiving infrastructure could force workers out of full-time work, or make Singapore workers less competitive relative to foreign competitors, if caregiving provisions at the workplace are not adequate." Giving a realistic take on the situation, Assoc Prof Ko of SUSS said that pro-natalist policies to increase birth rates, often through government incentives, do not seem to be very successful in many countries. "So reversing this trend (of shrinking family size) is going to be quite an uphill task." In light of this, society needs to adjust and embrace the eventual increase of the caregiving load on individual families, experts said. Assoc Prof Ko pointed to the reliance on fictive kin – kinship that goes beyond biological family. She noted that there are already many helpful Singaporeans who help to provide some form of caregiving to their elderly neighbours who live alone. In the future, as family units shrink further, there may be more of such cases of seniors relying on close friends and neighbours for their caregiving needs, she said. And so, it would be good if flexible work arrangements for caregiving could also be extended to this group of people, instead of just to immediate family members. "I know implementation may not be that easy, but then if there's some evidence to demonstrate that this person is providing some form of caregiving, perhaps based on a set of criteria, then I don't see why we should not extend such benefits to these caregivers," she said. On their part, parents of only-children who spoke to CNA TODAY said they are fully aware that they must prepare themselves for their elderly years to minimise the burden on their children in future. Ms Aw and her husband, for example, are trying their best to ensure that they are prepared financially and socially for their silver years. This includes having a good social network and healthy hobbies and interests, so that they do not need to turn solely to their daughter for their emotional and social needs in the future. As for herself as an only child, Ms Aw recalled feeling some "internal tension" when she was mulling the decision to move to South Africa. This was especially because her father had experienced a minor health scare just before they were due to relocate. Now, she tries her best to call her parents daily and tap extended family members and her parents' friends to check on them or take them out on special occasions. Ultimately, she and her parents arrived at the mutual understanding that she, too, needs to do what is best for her own family – even if it means that she cannot be physically present for them all the time.
